Was Nat Turner’s use of extreme violence righteous justice? Was it merely self-defense or was it enraged revenge? Note that the real Nat Turner rebellion slaughtered women and children, and involved murdering people while they slept and acts of extreme brutality.

What does the Bible say about taking revenge?

Is the real Nat Turner a hero?

Did God make the world the way it is now? What kind of world would you create? Answer

Fox Searchlight Pictures, a division of Twentieth Century Fox Film Corp.

Here’s what the distributor says about their film: “based on the story of Nat Turner, an enslaved man who led a slave rebellion in Southampton County, Virginia in 1831

Nat Turner, as a child in the antebellum South, is taught to read so he can study the Bible, and be a preacher to fellow slaves. When Turner's master takes him across the country on a preaching tour to profit from his preaching, Turner begins to see the scope of slavery, and decides to become a different leader and orchestrates a slave uprising in the hopes of leading his people to freedom.”

Wikipedia: “Rebel slaves killed anywhere from 55 to 65 people, the highest number of fatalities caused by any slave uprising in the Southern United States. The rebellion was put down within a few days, but Turner survived in hiding for more than two months afterwards. There was widespread fear in the aftermath of the rebellion, and white militias organized in retaliation against the slaves. The state executed 56 slaves accused of being part of the rebellion. In the frenzy, many non-participant slaves were punished. At least 100 African Americans, and possibly up to 200, were murdered by militias and mobs in the area. Across the South, state legislatures passed new laws prohibiting education of slaves and free black people, restricting rights of assembly and other civil rights for free black people, and requiring white ministers to be present at all worship services.”

IMDB: “The film looks at the slave revolt Nat Turner led in Virginia in 1831, but a storytelling device—the brutal sexual assault by white men on Turner's wife—feeds a rage that sets the rebellion in motion. History shows that Turner never acknowledged having a wife. There are records that indicate Turner's owner, Samuel Turner, married him to a slave named Cherry, but that he likely didn't consider the marriage valid and Nat never mentioned the marriage in his writings. Turner's rebellion was, according to his own writings, based on spiritual visions. ‘In a seventh vision, Nat Turner saw a holy war and believed he was commanded to take up arms against his oppressors,’ according to historians.”

IMDB: “[Actress] Gabrielle Union is a rape survivor. Her character [Esther] is raped in the film. On September 2, 2016, Union wrote an open-ed for the Los Angeles Times addressing the film's director Nate Parker's rape accusation in 1999. In 2012, the woman who accused Parker committed suicide after years battling depression. Union stated that she only found out about Parker's rape case in August 2016, and ‘as important and ground-breaking as this film is,’ she cannot take these allegations lightly and although it's often difficult to read and understand body language, the fact that some individuals interpret the absence of a ‘no’ as a ‘yes’ is problematic at least, criminal at worst.”

…The short-lived rebellion is filmed in gruesome detail. Plantation owners are killed in their homes. Slave hunters gun down the rebels. Flesh is torn apart by knives and swords and hatchets and bullets. Men, women and children are hanged. …[3]—Richard Roeper, Universal Press Syndicate

…slavery epic as brutal as “Braveheart” …If only it were less heavy-handed… [3/5]—Lanre Bakare, The Guardian

…A biographical drama steeped equally in grace and horror, it builds to a brutal finale that will stir deep emotion and inevitable unease. …—Justin Chang, Variety

“The Birth of a Nation” isn’t worth defending… Nate Parker’s retelling of Nat Turner’s rebellion does not succeed as art or as propaganda. …—Vinson Cunningham, The New Yorker

…a revenge movie… The film sticks to the basics of a true story while crafting a righteous fable in which a sweetheart of a hero hallucinates himself as Christ and sees angels watching over him. It’s a “counter-myth”… the film too often bludgeons and preaches when it should startle, challenge and mesmerize… [2]—Matt Zoller Seitz, RogerEbert.com

…builds to a finale that feels more like a revenge thriller with arguable scriptural justification…—Christian Hamaker, Crosswalk

“The Birth of a Nation” is as fraught as director and star Nate Parker… ultimately, a story told with little depth or artistry or skill. … [1½/4]—Barry Hertz, The Globe and Mail [Canada]